Ray LaMontagne – Ouroboros

“YOU’RE NEVER GOING to hear this song on the radio,” sings Ray LaMontagne on the closing track of Ouroboros, “but wouldn’t it make a lovely photograph?” The title refers to the ancient infinity symbol of a snake swallowing its own tail, and with these songs, LaMontagne draws his own dreamy circles in the sand. Encouraged by the hazy presence of co-producer Jim James, few traces remain of his previous wood-chopping ruggedness, the singer holing up with a saucerful of secrets for Homecoming, or raising inertia to an art-form on Another Day’s time-lapse blur. Wouldn’t It Make A Lovely Photograph is even far-out enough to recall Hurdy Gurdy Man.

Hey No Pressure raises the record’s pulse to dangerous levels, but the drowsing, starry-eyed mood is best served by the instructions issued on In My Own Way: “Lock the door/ Draw the shade.”

Here is Part One – Hey, No Pressure from the album:

Plus listen to the Ouroboros in full, via Apple Music